Today started out quite normal and then quickly went south this afternoon when Ryan began to develop yet another temperature. We didn't think much of it other than to "do the usual" of dosing him with some meds and pump him full of fluids. After about an hour from giving him some Calprofen, we noticed his temp wasn't going down, but was instead going up...to 103.1. Because of this and how drowsy he seemed, we rang NHS Direct.
They ran through their standard protocol of questioning...was he having fits, were his lips or fingertips blue in colour, would he turn his head and follow us when we got his attention. Although he wasn't a positive on any of the more serious/extreme questions, they said a nurse would be ringing within 5 minutes.
At the end of the phone call I took his temperature again and it read a staggering 103.8! We remained calm for Ryan's sake, but were absolutely sick with worry over what could be causing this.
A nurse returned the call and was very diligent in her questioning as well, assuring us we have done all the right things by undressing him and attempting to bring the fever down with Calprofen whilst vigilantly trying to get fluids into his system. She suggested that while he didn't run a fever yesterday, since the original high temps started on Wednesday the 28th, it would be in our best interest to have him seen by a doctor. With the fact that it was New Year's Eve and our local surgery was shut, we had the choice of waiting at the walk-in centre at Holly Hall or to drive to Sandwell Hospital to be seen in their primary care clinic within the hour. We opted for the latter and began preparing to leave the house so as not to dress Ryan until we were absolutely ready to go -- this mainly because his temp had seemingly gone up again to 104.4!!
Once there, we waited only a short time after our appointment was set before we were called back to the doctor.
The only thing I can't stand about seeing a doctor who isn't your "regular" is they don't tend to have much in the way of personality, nor do they have a "way" with kids -- this proven when he actually expected Ryan to keep a plastic/paper thermometer clenched in his mouth! Each and every time the guy would STOP touching or modging with Ryan, our poor little guy would mumble, "yaaay," in the most pathetic attempt at enthusiasm.
The doctor listened to his breathing, checked his ears and throat and questioned if he had been coughing. Truth be told, yes...he had a cough really from the start of December and couldn't seem to shake it. So, doc's professional medical opinion was..."it's his throat."
Trust when I say how tempted I was to ask him to "break that down for me in layman's terms."
From here the doctor played hunt and peck with his keyboard to type in the notes from the visit...all whilst not saying a word to us. I made gestures to Matt and we rolled our eyes at one another at how silly this was before the doctor then handed us a prescription from the printer for Amoxicillin and the prescription equivalent to Calpol.
Confused as whether this was the cue for the end of our visit, we thanked the man and made a hasty exit and drove onward to Sainsbury's back home so Matt could fill the scrip.
The photo (above) was taken well after he had his banana-flavoured Amoxicillin and paracetamol. To see it you would have never known!
He was still in a pretty chipper mood at bedtime and we questioned whether all the hours sleeping on me whilst on the phone with NHS Direct would interrupt his regular sleep cycle...
...and 5 seconds later, the answer (so far) is no.
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